It's all in the shape of the Lamed: how to read the reservists' protest.

It's not the pilots refusing to train; now, it's soldiers from Gaza protesting. And the army is most unhappy with them. Interestingly, the reservists are protesting for reasons you might not guess.

To close out the week, a quick introduction to the politics of graphics.

The following post appeared on Chamal, an Israeli news social media outlet.

Translation:

The protest of the reservists who left Gaza hung signs on military vehicles: “If the senior ranks of the government and the army do not know how to be victorious, let them give way to those who do. We are tired of the desire of each side on the political map to achieve a victory. What we need is a decisive victory against the the Nazi enemy that is all around us.”

IDF spokesperson:

“In the last few hours, evidence has been circulated of reservists protesting during active reserve service using military vehicles. The actions seen in the video are against orders and have no place in the IDF, neither in routine days nor in war. The incident is under investigation.”

Ie: these men just risked their lives to serve their country, and are frustrated that, in their minds, they’re not being permitted to win.

So, “Let’s court martial them.”

Sounds like a great idea. What’s really up here? It’s all in the shape of the Lamed. We’ll explain:

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The initial “evidence” came from a tweet that the soldiers themselves posted:

The signs that the soldiers attached to their army vehicles read:

They also demobilized us
Without getting to victory

The tweet contained this video, to which we’ve added English subtitles for our viewers:

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As we noted above, there’s a subtle graphic element to those signs that it’s easy to miss.

The last word of the sign, להכריע, le-hachriyah, means (in this context) to “achieve victory.” That word starts with the letter Lamed: ל. Usually, a Lamed looks like the letters circled in YELLOW in the Likud sign below:

This one’s an old campaign sign that reads:

Strong on security
Strong on the economy --
The Likud. 

But note the graphic Lamed in the GREEN circle on the sign above. That’s the key to the Likud logo. There are dozens of examples. See the Lamed below:

Now, look at the Lamed on the last word of the soldiers’ sign. It’s the Likud party’s Lamed.

In other words, without saying it explicitly, but instead just by using that Lamed, the soldiers are saying that the Likud is the problem. In other words, without saying it, the soldiers are saying that Bibi is the problem.

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With that in mind, let’s take one more look at that tweet above.

Note the hashtag in the GREEN circle. It reads:

#Netanyahu_is_good_for_the_Arabs.

Note the irony: not “Strong on security, strong on the economy.” Just “good for the Arabs.” That’s not what you used to hear from Bibi’s critics in the past.

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Now we can see why the soldiers might be in a heap of trouble. Because Bibi cannot be happy. And he’ll want to snuff this out before it spreads.

As we noted in earlier in the week, the political gloves are coming off.

It’s going to be an interesting February.

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